Declan Rice says the only bit of history making that matters is England lifting the European Championship trophy high into the Berlin sky after beating Spain in Sunday’s Euro 2024 final.
England go into the clash at the Olympiastadion having reached back-to-back Euro finals for the first time but are underdogs against a Spanish side who have been arguably the team of the tournament.
After criticism and unrest over England’s performances in the group stage and last-16 extra-time win over Slovakia, Gareth Southgate has slowly steered his team into calmer waters as displays improve and individual brilliance starts to shine.
Having lost the Euro 2020 final on penalties to Italy, England have secured consecutive appearances in the continental showpiece while also reaching just their third major final – and first away from Wembley.
Asked how much motivation the Italy defeat provides, Rice replied: “It’s the biggest.
“Back-to-back finals, that’s history in itself, first time on foreign soil? It’s another bit of history, but the real history that we want is to lift that trophy.
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“I can assure you now we’re going to give it absolutely everything and there’s going to be nothing left in that changing room come Sunday when we go out and perform.
“Back-to-back finals, that just in itself is enough for now, for us to go out there and just think ‘what have we got to lose?’
“We’re all here. We only get one career. You never want to look back and think, ‘I wish I’d have just done that’, or wish I’d have give a little bit more.
“I feel like now is the time that we give everything and we show that we are England.”
England have trailed in all of their knockout games at Euro 2024 and their semi-final win over the Netherlands was just their second game won in 90 minutes during the tournament.
Rice, though, believes that can be seen as a positive, players stepping up to deliver on the big stage and at just the right time for the nation.
Jude Bellingham’s amazing stoppage-time goal took the Slovakia game to extra time, where captain Harry Kane finished the job.
Switzerland were next as Bukayo Saka equalised with a fine strike before all five of England’s penalty takers scored from 12 yards to seal shoot-out success.
Ollie Watkins then came off the bench to score a memorable last-minute winner against the Dutch to take England to the final.
“It’s hard to put it onto one thing really, I think the main thing is the belief,” Rice told ITV Sport when asked what has inspired England’s moments in Germany.
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“I think if you look back at our first knockout game, Jude scores the overhead kick from the last throw-in, Kyle Walker, you’ve got to have that belief to throw the ball in the box.
“Jude’s had the belief to push his man away and then get himself free to score the goal. We’ve got to have the belief in the group that we can score in our minds. Just so many things that have to go your way.
“We’ve obviously been 1-0 down in every knockout game so far and that’s why I say the word belief, because we’ve still believed that we could win all of them games and obviously we have, which is a massive factor.
“We’re all so itching to lift that trophy and feel that moment with ourselves, the manager, our families, the nation who’ve been behind us so much.
“So, look, we’ve still a long way to go. We can’t talk too much into existence but we can have that little bit of fire in our belly that we want it.”
